Corrosive spills near Route 20

Saturday

Jun 28, 2008 at 6:00 AM

By Priyanka Dayal TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

A Utah-bound tractor-trailer hauling barrels of a corrosive material leaked some of the hazardous liquid onto Hayes Memorial Drive yesterday, forcing authorities to close the road while a crew spent hours cleaning the area.

The spill started near Route 20, a few minutes after 3 p.m., and extended more than half a mile to the distribution center of Rinchem Company Inc. at 111 Hayes Memorial Drive.

Dan Liddington, the driver of the white 53-foot truck, said he picked up a load of the chemical at the Rinchem warehouse yesterday morning and drove to Sturbridge to have the load weighed. In Sturbridge, the scale showed that his truck was stuffed with 220 pounds more than the 80,000-pound limit. So he turned around and headed back to Marlboro to discharge a few barrels.

When he was approaching Hayes Memorial Drive, Mr. Liddington said, a car ahead of him ran a stop sign, forcing him to slam on the brakes. The sudden jerk must have shifted the load and caused the leak, authorities said.

“When I came up here it was leaking pretty bad,” Mr. Liddington, a Columbus, Ohio, resident, said while watching crews inspect his truck outside the chemical company’s warehouse. He has been driving trucks for 18 years, and this was his first leak, he said.

The truck was carrying several stacks of 55-gallon drums, Deputy Fire Chief James Diamond said, but he said authorities had not determined how many of the drums were leaking.

Authorities did not give the name of the chemical but the liquid was a colorless corrosive used in cleaning solutions, according to Trooper James Jaworek of the state police commercial vehicles division. It can irritate the eyes, mouth and nose, he said, and if strong enough, it can burn human skin. No one was injured in yesterday’s incident.

Marlboro firefighters and police, state police, a state hazardous materials team and a private cleanup crew arrived at the scene in the afternoon and stayed well past dark. The cleanup crew spread a layer of sand on a long stretch of the road to absorb the liquid. At 8 last night, the crew, wearing hazmat suits and masks, was still inspecting the area. The corrosive-soaked sand still had to be swept off the road and shipped to a safe disposal area before workers could go home.

Hayes Memorial Drive connects Bartlett Street and Route 20 in an industrial section of Marlboro. It serves as a cut-through for commuters, but was closed to drivers for most of the afternoon and evening yesterday.